Hey!
First, I have a question for you that has occurded me as a problem.
When I go to sleep at evening and I sleep until morning, I hardly remember my dreams.
BUT, if I wake up at the middle of the night, and then go back to sleep immediately and sleep until morning, I remember my dreams clearly.
And I see this as a problem, because if I want to remember my dreams I have to wake up in the middle of the night and that’s not fun :/. Do you have any suggestions, or ideas to solve this?
I’ve heard that there are 5 different types of sleep in the night. First there is 4 states of NREM-sleep and then 1 state of REM. Is it possible to remember all your dreams in those states?
Take a week for tests, try waking up in different hours of the night (or rather, different ammounts of time since you fell asleep): find the time you’re more comfortable waking up and use it as your time for WBTB.
It seems people who go sleep at 10 pm to 11 pm find it easier to wake up at 4 am-ish. Give it a try, but remember: you should find the right time for yourself.
Well, the moment dreams are the clearer and usually the only moment you can remember them is in the REM sleep.
It is possible to dream (and to hallucinate) in the other types of sleep, but I’m not sure the dreams will be as vivid and as easy to remember. I don’t know much about the subject, so I hope this helps…
Nyrhinen
I moved your topic to the first steps forum since this is the forum where the big remembering dreams topic is located.
I didn’t merge it into this topic since you asked about the different stages of sleep throughout the night too.
Hi Nyrhinen!
Are you using an alarm to wake up in the morning?
About your second question, I agree with Bruno. It’s possible to remember n-REM dreams, but it’s far easier to remember REM dreams, probably because you naturally wake up after a REM sleep phase.
I agree with the remembering part of your dreams as it is easier to remember your subsequent dreams after you wake up in the middle of the night and then fall back asleep.
However, I think I’m pretty good at remembering dreams because I remember about 3 a night without having to wake up first.
What I do is once I wake up, just keep thinking about what you dream last night. Do not think of anything else. Not even what you are gonna eat for breakfast. That should be a habit with you, so just let your body and subconscious guide you along your morning routine, and keep your conscious mind on your dreams. You should be able to build up your collection of dreams from the night. Record your dreams somewhere that is freely editable. Like a PDA, computer, or even your handphone!
The reason is this: Most of the times, when recalling dreams, they aren’t in chronological order.
If you can’t recall any dream after trying to recall them for 10mins, then I can’t help you any further. But don’t give up. Practice makes perfect.
Usually, you should be able to recall a small fragment. START WRITING! Most of the time, while writing the small fragment out, you will start to recall more of your dream!
Of course there are prequisites for this dream recall.
Every night, when you go to sleep, empty your mind of all other thoughts and focus on dreaming and dream recall. Most of us bring whatever our troubles and concerns during the day with us into our sleep. This sorts of gives the mind extra stuff to process, resulting in a weak dream recall.
This prequisite might interfere with your daily activities and therefore it is important to prepare everything for the next day before you go to sleep, so that you can clear your mind of reminders.
Nyrhinen